But does it even matter? The Tigers are going to beat down the NL survivor anyway, and I think everyone recognizes that.

(2b) Cubs to hire Lou Piniella: Needless to say, I'm not expecting him to hire Steve Lyons as his bench coach. Everyone was sure this was a fait d'accompli for Joe Girardi. I think it's bold; he's one of the only managers out there who is an event in and of himself. (I've always had a soft spot for him. My baseball glove -- randomly -- is a "Piniella" model, and -- even more randomly -- he once signed a baseball to me and my ex-g/f, whose father was good buddies with him.)

(3) BCS: Ohio St, USC in drivers' seat. I think it's set: The winner of OSU-Michigan will (or, at least, should) meet the winner of WVA-Louisville in the BCS title game. (USC won't survive unbeaten.) Click here for a full BCS breakdown.

Plus, if you missed it yesterday, here's my argument why college football's system is sort of undeniably awesome (even if you're a Florida fan).

(Meanwhile, Boise St. put up big numbers again last night. They look more and more like this year's 2004 Utah: Likely unbeaten, but with ZERO chance of making the BCS title game, even if they're the only unbeaten remaining. The best they can hope for is to earn an invite to a BCS-level bowl with that new slot that was opened for Cindy non-BCS teams just like them.)

(4) 31 brawlers were suspended from that wild Miami-FIU fight on Saturday night. Personally, I can't believe they could narrow it down to that few (13 from The U, 18 from FIU).

Far more interesting were the comments by TV analyst Lamar Thomas, a "The U." alum. Here's what he said. Judge for yourself:

''Now, that's what I'm talking about. You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don't come into the OB playing that stuff. You're across the ocean over there. You're across the city. You can't come over to our place talking noise like that. You'll get your butt beat. I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing.''

And: "I say, why don't they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ball game and get it on some more? You don't come into the OB, baby,'' Thomas said. ''We've had a down couple years but you don't come in here talking smack. Not in our house.''

(5) Duke LAX players on "60 Minutes": I watched the piece, and I have to say between that and other in-depth reporting I've read, I have serious doubts that the players committed the crime. I am most certain they'll be acquitted -- or any guilty ruling will be overturned on appeal.

(Now, do I still think that Duke LAX players are probably, across the board, a bunch of priggish assholes? Absolutely. But their comeuppance shouldn't include jail -- unless they've actually earned it. In this case, it just doesn't look like they have. One player was right: Even if he doesn't go to jail, this will define his life forever. If you saw someone's resume and it said "Duke Lacrosse," wouldn't you think twice about hiring him? It's like having "Enron" on your resume. Radioactive.)

Except Dan originally chose a Mets-A's World Series. The original jinx was still in effect; now that the A's fell to his first jinx, the Tigers can now be jinxed. There are rules of hierarchy and precedence when it comes to jinxes.

At this point in time, why would you even PUT that you were a member of the Duke LaCrosse team on your resume? It's not like a job you had that you have to report on there...All this really means is that they might have to work a little harder to find a job, rather than just get set up by one of their dad's golfing buddies. That is assuming, of course, that Duke lets them back into school.

When I saw the preview for 60 Minutes, the only thing that crossed my mind was "Wow, those guys just look like they are total assholes."They'll likely be acquitted (and with reason) but they would have been popular at a Federal Pound-You-In-The-Ass Prison.

I am shocked you haven't written more on the fight between "The U" and FIU. What a bunch of no good, ghetto ass thugs. I was embarrassed to be a college football fan. Also, what about that douchebag announcer? "You don't come into the OB." Get a fucking life you thug. Go try out for Boyz in the Hood 2. Also, Larry Coker needs to resign TODAY. No question about it.

And by the way, the Miami I went to was a college before Florida was a state.

Did anyone hear on Mike and Mike this morning one of the announcer's for the Miami/Flordia International game remarks? I don't recall his name or his remarks word for word but he was and Ex Miami player and said something to the effect of thats what you get for comming into our house and mouthing off. You deserve to get your butt whooped. I wish I could go down there and get in on it. Just wondering if anyone else heard this and remembers the guys name.

Apparently, Steve Lyons was at dinner with Lou and his wife after the game discussing how funny the exchange was when he got the call from Fox management that he needed to come in for disciplinary action...Fox may have overreacted on this one.

I know it's unrealistic, but why did the Arizona Cardinals have to get that 20 million for naming rigths to their stadium... they could have made a great statement naming it "Pat Tillman Memorial Stadium" and I'm sure someone would still have paid big change for rights to something like "Pat Tillman Memorial Stadium at the University of Phoenix Online Field"

I guess I'm naive, just would have been a wonderful gesture

At least they didn't name it Pink Taco Stadium (or at most they didn't!)

I don't want to sympathize with the Duke LAX team, but (assuming they are innocent) they did kind of get a raw deal. While there are media guys that try to stick up for T.O. or Stephen Jackson, over and over, everyone threw the Duke LAX team under the bus. Everyone wanted to see the preppy northern kids get their comeuppance, not necessarily to serve justice to the victim, but to slam the school and the ideaology of kids getting a free ride due to daddy's money.

The winner of OSU-Michigan will (or, at least, should) meet the winner of WVA-Louisville in the BCS title game.

Hold your horses, Dan. Not giving the Big East nearly enough credit here. Between Pitt, USF, and Rutgers, there's no way WVU and Lousville both go undefeated other than their match-up.

There's a better chance of USC running the table (which I fear is going to happen, dammit).

But don't be surprised when we're discussing, the first week of December, something like: whether the undefeated OSU-Mich winner should face off against one-loss ND, one-loss Cal, one-loss Michigan/OSU, one-loss Louisville, one-loss WVU, one-loss Rutgers, one-loss Texas, one-loss Tennessee, one-loss Auburn, or one-loss UF. What happens to the beauty of the system then?

I'm telling you right now, the de facto championship game is OSU/Michigan. Whichever team wins (please let it be OSU) is going to annihilate whomever they play in the National Championship Game. Michigan would probably win by more because OSU tends to call off the dogs once they're up big. However, the game won't be in any more doubt than the Texas or Iowa games.

BSR - you obviously don't watch a lot of Michigan football. If there is any team that lets up on opponents rather than running up the score, it's Big Blue. Lloyd Carr has never beaten up on a team for no reason, to the extent that I was starting to think that might be a weakness.

If UM had blown out a bunch of teams in '97 instead of taking the high road, maybe Nebraska wouldn't have stolen half of the national championship with a tear in Tom Osborne's eye and a kicked touchdown reception. If the Wolverines had put a couple more games out of reach last year, maybe the big slow defense wouldn't have been able to blow them in the fourth quarter.

There are only a few blowout-type games in Lloyd Carr's career at Michigan that I can think of. 49-3 over MSU was payback for MSU's bullshit phantom second in East Lansing; 38-0 at home and 47-21 at ND were both statements, and this year's throttling avenged the officiating debacle last year. That's all I'm coming up with right now, although T. Biakabatuka did go a little overboard when he ran for 313 yards against OSU.

You are obviously right about OSU, though - they really loosened up on the reins after getting to 38 against MSU this past weekend. I mean, I'm surprised they didn't score way more than that to make a statement against such a highly-ranked team (despite their loss to Illinois).*

There's just one more thing I think I ought to do in this comment - make fun of Steve Spurrier. I've got nothing right now, but... the dude used to run it up like nobody's business. What an ass.

*Note: I could have included this story, but it's actually really awesome. That's my favorite possible story about Woody (aside from losing to Bo in '69).

Yes, the players most involved (there were plenty of cameras, I think it should be possible to sort out who was down for brawling and who couldn't avoid it) should probably be thrown out of their schools and should never be given football helmets again. It's clear that many of those guys do not belong on an NCAA football field, for multiple reasons.

But no. That brawl included a bunch of players who were all involved and all deserved what they got. Letting Reggie Bush and USC conduct business that is clearly against the rules laid out for them is unfair to everyone else.

I don't know what transactions we currently think went down, but I do know that anything that is against the rules needs to be punished as though it's against the rules. There are thousands of athletes at hundreds of schools playing NCAA football, and you think it's ok to act like Reggie Bush and USC are in some way better than them? If there are rules, and we enforce them sometimes, we have to enforce them all the time, or else some team can just buy all the talent it needs to win for 3 seasons at the college level and insure that it will be completely overrated for the next year or two. Oh, sound familiar?

This is not one of my cleanest, best-formed arguments, but your little insinuation that all Reggie Bush ever did was stay in a hotel room is not gonna fly past me.

And for the record, yes, Michigan deserved all they got after the whole Fab Five fiasco. You just can't do that shit.

I personally think that not only should those kids involved in the brawl be suspended and have their scholarships revoked but I think two other things should happen - Larry Coker should be forced to resign, and also Miami and FIU should not play another football game this season.

It might seem unfair to punish the whole team but this happens all the time. Ask the St. Bonaventure basketball team from about 5 years ago - a bunch of members of your team screw up you all get punished - that's the way it goes.

Larry Coker effecitvely took one of the premier football programs in college football and turned them into the laughing stock of the nation.

I'm not sure if we can blame everything on Larry Coker. In a way he is to blame because he (through his coaches) recruited these players and obviously there seems to be some character issues. (I don't think any are left over from the Butch Davis era) So him and his coaching staff definately deserve some blame for the incident. At the same time the players involved have to shoulder the blame as well. But don't forget, this is Miami and has not been a "squeeky clean" program. There's a reason the ND-Miami games were titled "Catholics vs Convicts".

I'd like to see Miami take a strong stand here. Minimum penalty should be suspended for the rest of the year and Miami will forgo any bowl. That's what Clemson and SC (please correct me if I'm wrong on the teams) did after their brawl a few years ago. Coker is done at the end of the season anyway, I'd be surprised if they got rid of him now. I think the University getting rid of Coker now would send the wrong message. It would effectively lay all the blame for this at Coker and the coaches while the players get a slap on the wrist (unless they are stripped of their scholarships). The problem is deeper than just the coaches here.

So the QB/C exchange wouldn't be fumbled leading to a BS TD or 2 by MSU? Troy started the drive in the 3rd and unlike the NIU game Tressel let him finish it. It was a seven and a half minute drive that resulted in a rushing TD, not a stat padder for Troy resulting in a broken collarbone.

MSU got the ball back with 12 to go in the 4th and Zwick was in after that. Hardly running it up. Last week against MSU Henne was still in at the 6 minute mark...

"If you saw someone's resume and it said "Duke Lacrosse," wouldn't you think twice about hiring him?" - Dan Shanoff

I'd be embarassed to put "Duke" on my resume, not only "Duke Lacrosse". Like someone above said, who the hell puts sports teams they played on, on a post-college resume? Do college athletes really do this? I didn't realize bagging groceries at the local supermarket required such high credentials. :D

Boise is not '04 Utah and SHOULDN'T be in a BCS bowl. Not only did that Utah team beat a few good teams (blew out A&M, who went on to play in the Cotton Bowl), they demolished everyone on their schedule. I believe their closest game was 17.

Boise beat Wyoming by 7. Hawaii by 7. New Mexico St. by 12. NEW MEXICO ST! BY 12?

That Utah team was an exception to the rule. Just because a mid-major goes undefeated doesn't mean they should get a BCS bid.

The Duke LAX coach resigned immediately and that situation took place away from the field - and possibly NEVER even happened.

This situation took place on the field, on TV in front of everyone how does Larry Coker get to stay? The trustee's say he is safe for now I think the message that should be sent is the coach and the players are responsible and thus they're ALL OUT.

Last year before the bowl game, (they had a home game for a bowl), they invited the Mayor and a bunch of sponsors who all were completely biased assholes who didn't even pretend to be objective (though bowl games are supposed to be held at neutral sites)...

Worst of all the mayor made a racist comment about Kiwanuka's last name last year that pretty much pissed off every BC fan last year.

If they were in a real conference, they'd lose... and often. BC beat them when they had a home game in late December. They're not that good, and at least some of them are racist, arrogant, hick fucks who can kiss my ass.

Maher--"So the QB/C exchange wouldn't be fumbled leading to a BS TD or 2 by MSU? "

Really? That's what you're going with? Does Zwick have some kind of history fumbling the center/QB exchange? Even if this DOES happen, MSU already proved that they couldn't capitalize on a turnover deep in OSU's zone. It is what it is. Of course no Buckeye fan will ever cop to anything like running up the score, just as fans of most programs never would. This is why I say it's the other team's bigger responsibility to stop you, rather than trying to determine the arbitrary point at which it's ok to put in a new QB.

I'm more of a blog stalker (being an ex-avid Quickie reader) but I wanted to take a more active role.

I've been reading this whole discussion about running about the score...namely between Ohio State and Michigan fans. I'll admit, I'm an OSU fan, which basically means I hate Michigan (nothing personal, you know how it goes). But I did read these comments and think, when did football turn into being nice? When did people start complaining about teams winning "too big"? Woody Hayes ran up the score on Michigan in 1968...and went for 2. And he had a terrific quote to explain it, because he "couldn't go for three!" And it's true. Football is about rivalry and about winning. Did that come back to haunt Hayes? Absolutely. They lost the next year. Michigan's team was probably pissed. And it fueled them to fight harder. That's what football is about.

I'm surprised to see the lack of coverage re: the punishment- I mean slap on the wrist - for the Miami/FIU brawl. It's not surprise that especially MU wants to get away with the minimum punishment necessary - the FB team makes them too much $$$. Same can be said for the ACC conf. - they want to do enough to say they acted, but want to minimize the financial pain. Disgraceful. Wish the NCAA would step in and offer appropriate punishment, similar to what the NBA did after Pistons/Pacers brawl.

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DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.